At the Bottom of Your Receipt

I work at Kroger, as I may have mentioned on here before. It can be a joyful experience at times; others, it's a nightmare. The public can drive a man to madness, it's true. And as a member of the retail business, I am assigned a number of seemingly meaningless tasks that I must perform when bagging groceries, running a cash register, or working the customer service desk. One such task is the pushing of the Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard.

This card is a credit card offered to Kroger Plus members after they have shopped at their friendly Kroger store a certain, and unknown, number of times. A prompt will pop up on the screen of the cashier's keyboard, reminding the cashier to prompt the customer about this offer. Information about the card is on the bottom of the customer's receipt. There are two ways to present this information:

-Option A: Excited. Passionate. On fire. "By the way, customer, you happen to qualify for a new Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard. In addition to having your Kroger card on the back, this card will help you out with your shopping. It allows for an additional five cents off of each gallon when filling up at our Kroger fuel station, which we all need now that gas prices are going up and up, huh? Also, in addition to your normal savings, you can save even more money at Kroger. After accumulating a certain number of points, you will be sent cash voucher checks with rebates of five, ten, even twenty dollars to use in store. After you collect a few of these, which takes very little time, you can bring them into the store and use them to save money on your groceries. Any more information is available at the bottom of your receipt, including how to easily sign up for this card. Thank you for shopping with us here at Kroger, and we hope to see you again."

-Option B: Listless. Uncaring. Forced. "Hey, there's some info about a Kroger Mastercard at the bottom of your receipt. If you're interested, and I'm sure you aren't, it's down there. Thanks."

This forked road of options is one that all cashiers must come to multiple times a shift: do we care enough about this card and this company to legitimatelly try to sell this card, or will we halfway do it? Usually, the latter option is the preferred method of attack. It's easier. It shows less devotion, but more devotion would be weird; who wants to be a Kroger freak? Unfortunately, this very attitude is often carried over to our feelings and methods of sharing God's truth with others.

Think about it: we as Christians typically will take the easy road out when it comes to sharing His Gospel with others. Sometimes that means saying as little as possible to make our conscience feel like we "shared the Gospel." Sometimes it means saying nothing. This is a troubling attitude that many, if not all, Christians must face at some point. Do we really care about His message? Are we too worried about saving face and not being a "God freak" to say anything? Not to mention, it takes work to share! We have to find a way to express our faith in a conversation, make it creative enough to resonate with the person, and find a way to not go overboard. I'm tired thinking about it. Does God really expect us to try as hard as we can to spread His good news?

After Christ drove out demons from him, a man in Luke 8 went crazy for Christ:

"And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town all that Jesus had done for him." -Luke 8:39b, HCSB

This kind of reaction was not uncommon of people who Christ touched. Often times, Christ even had to make sure they didn't tell people what He had done, just so a riot or something wouldn't begin. The disciples of Christ took things even further in Acts:

Pretty soon after Christ's death and resurrection, the local religious leaders in Jerusalem made it illegal to speak of the good news of Christ. This did not deter the disciples; it only made them go stronger. Peter and John were arrested after "provoking the people" with the word of Christ. In the time before they got arrested, many people came to know Christ (Acts 4:4). In Acts 13, we see that the disciples were facing persecution in Antioch (Ant-E-ock) and yet they still shared the Gospel until they were run out of town. So then, in chapter 14, we see them going to Iconium (have fun saying that) and getting run out of town for speaking "in such a way that a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed (Acts 14:1)."

You see, the early Christians were completely enthralled in Christ. He was their life. Everything they did revolved around him. Look at the early church as described in Acts 4:32, where it says "they held everything in common." Clearly, this isn't saying that they have literally everything in common: Peter was a fisherman redneck, and Matthew was a number-cruncher. Guarantee they didn't have the same interests in pastimes. Yet, they had everything in common because Christ was their everything. Everything in their world revolved around Christ and His mission for their lives. If everything in your life revolves around Christ, you have everything in common with another who is equalled as obsessed with Christ. This is a level of passion I desire to obtain. That's the kind of Christ follower I wish so badly to be, and I would venture to say that should be how you want to be, also.

Are you so passionate about Christ that you refuse to take the easy way out of His plan for your life? Are you willing to talk to anyone about the greatness of the Savior of the world, or will you talk about Him as if he were nothing to you? Do you genuinely care about the advancement of the Gospel, or do you genuinely care about the advancement of your coolness?